Indie Game: The Movie

Documentary highlighting the hard work and passion behind games like Braid, Super Meat Boy and FEZ

Indie Game aims to shed light on the often mysterious process of games development by focussing on the small teams behind Braid, Super Meat Boy and FEZ. This is a world away from big blockbusters such as Call of Duty or GTA which have thousands of people working on them; these are tiny teams (often just one or two people) slogging away at computer coding over several years.

The film highlights the hard work, dedication and stress involved in putting these games together, as well as the difference between indie developers and big companies in terms of motivations: these titles are a representation of the indies' personalities via games. People are telling their own personal stories in pixels; they give so much of themselves and the sheer amount of work involved is so extreme (it has to be one of the most labour intensive art forms in regards to the sheer man hours necessary to turn ideas into videogame reality), their whole life becomes wrapped up in the complex and time consuming technical process.

Even after release they have such an emotional attachment to their games. Braid developer Jonathan Blow had particular problems with people misunderstanding the intentions of his work (despite the almost universal praise for the game). Indie Game’s real strength is helping to prove that games can be art: in the right hands they can be a representation of emotion told via a new medium, especially when made with as much passion and commitment as these three examples. This isn’t just a documentary for games geeks but, like Cartoon College (also showing at the GFF) it gives an insight into the creative process and the drive and passion necessary to produce something you want to share with the world.

Indie Game: The Movie is showing at the GFT, Glasgow, Tue 19 Feb, as part of Game Cats Go Miaow! at the Glasgow Film Festival.

Indie Game: The Movie

Documentary shedding light on the often mysterious process of games development by focusing on the small teams behind Braid, Super Meat Boy and FEZ. Highlighting the hard work, dedication and stress involved in putting these games together, as well as the difference between indie developers and big companies, helping to…